The women queued to get in. The atmosphere was so lovely that rival players were clapped rather than jeered, and the home team captain said "this memory will stay with me forever." Seriously, flowers were thrown.

Leaving aside the obvious surprise to some that so many women were fans (41,000), and that even the New York Times sneered that cheers for a goal sounded "like the moment the lights go down at a Justin Bieber concert", the event has been heralded as a great success. Everyone welcomed an atmosphere unusually devoid of abusive, as opposed to supportive, chants, and the media loved the pictures.

Could the Premier League introduce similar women-only games in the UK? I called them to ask. There's no need, came the answer.

Much has changed since English clubs were banned from Europe for five years and told to clean up their act in 1985 following the awful Heysel stadium disaster.

Back then, the number of female attendees was in single percentage figures. Last season almost one in four (23%) of supporters attending matches were women. League officials say the increasing number of women and ethnic minorities has pushed up the average number of people attending football matches by 62% to 35,363 since 1992, when the league began. (League officials inextricably link the increasing number of ethnic minority attendees with women. Of course women racially abuse others and scream abuse at them, but far fewer than men, apparently.)

Such diversity - as well as increased security, all-seat stadiums and football banning orders - have helped lead to historically low levels of arrests for football-related offences. They fell 10% last year to an average of one arrest a match, with no arrests at 70% of games.

There are still awful incidences of violence, of course, particularly overseas where football hooliganism is still called the "English disease", but clubs are making an effort because it's good business. Family-friendly stands make for good TV, acting as free ads to those millions of Sky subscribers who don't have season tickets. Manchester City, whose oil-rich backers want to make it into a global brand, have introduced an entire family stand with a kids menu, magicians and jugglers.

Female fans without children, who seem to be a forgotten demographic among football executives, have nonetheless reacted positively to a decrease in the amount of violence. The parlous state of women's loos and the dearth of salads with your balti pie doesn't matter quite so much as the declining incidents of assault, oddly enough.

One third of female fans and almost half of all ethnic minority fans surveyed have started attending matches in the last five years. This could mean that support will be short-lived, but the graph is heading the right way towards greater diversity. [Source for statistics: Premier League Season Review.]

We don't need women-only games. Matches with great facilities and an atmosphere devoid of violence and abuse would be supported by everyone. Wouldn't they?